Saturday morning we read the very end of the book of Bereshit during services. As is customary in Jewish Renewal, we did three group aliyot during the Torah service. I went up for the third aliyah, when we read the verses wherein Joseph's brothers fling themselves on his mercy again, fearing his anger. But he reassures them, saying, "although you intended me harm, God intended it for good." I figured I could use a blessing intended to help me look at what might appear to be harm, and to find some kind of good in it.

Our theme for this year's conference is Manifesting Ruach HaKodesh. "Holy Spirit" is a decent translation, though ruach is also breath; it's the spirit of YHVH moving over the deep. Ruach is inspiration, aspiration, wind, interbreathing (what you might call con-spiracy!), presence, the storm, the calm within the storm. Ruach  carries, creates, hovers, motivates, sweeps one clean, inspires, animates, fills, quickens, transforms. As we brainstormed this list of qualities and ideas relating to ruach, before our morning text study session, the word came in that interstate 36, nearby, has been closed today because of unusually strong winds...

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